They're Great

Pretenders

Fantasy League Baseball Players - Including Gov. Mario Cuomo - Are Growing In Numbers And Sparking Debate Across The Country

April 25, 1994|By ERIC CONRAD Business Writer

Jim Deam is convinced 1994 is a bust. And he blames Darryl Strawberry.

If Deam seems to be overreacting to Strawberry's drug and alcohol problem, there's something you should know: Deam, a media buyer for Harris Drury Cohen in Fort Lauderdale, plays Rotisserie baseball.

In this fantasy baseball game, sports fans can pretend they are baseball general managers and build teams made up of real major league athletes. Teams are rated on how well their players perform during the season.

Deam picked Strawberry, a Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder, at his league's preseason draft. The next day, Strawberry told the Dodgers he had a problem. He may miss the whole season.

"He was the linchpin of the whole team," explains Deam, whose Hoboken Zephyrs are defending champions of the Fort Lauderdale-based Couch Potatoes league. "I'm sunk. I'm sunk. This is disastrous."

Today marks the third full week of the 1994 Major League Baseball season. To people such as Deam, early-season baseball means the restart of Rotisserie (also called fantasy) leagues across the country.

An estimated 2 million to 4 million people - advertising executives, lawyers, dentists and teachers - play Rotisserie baseball each year. Anthony Lake, President Clinton's national security adviser, plays. So does New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.

That's quite an accomplishment for a hobby created 14 years ago, in La Rotisserie Francaise, a Manhattan restaurant, by 10 people with no idea what they had done - and with baseball on the brain.

Since then, Rotisserie baseball has sparked debate over the extent of its impact on workplaces across America. There is no doubt that fax machines, voice-mail systems and office mail couriers are a bit busier during baseball season because Rotisserie players are making deals.

The fervor of Rotisserie players also has fueled a cottage industry of computer software providers and publishing companies that cater to statistics-minded players who spend hours each week following players on their teams.

The biggest splash on the Rotisserie scene this year was made by ESPN, the all-sports cable network.

On March 31, a few days before most leagues held their drafts, ESPN anchor Keith Olbermann and baseball analyst Peter Gammons hosted a two-hour special on Rotisserie baseball, available on a pay-per-view basis only. Olbermann, by the way, has four Rotisserie teams.

ESPN spokesman Rob Tobias said numbers from the event are not in yet, but ESPN thought the program merited being re-aired six times through mid-April.

"Like Olbermann says, if you're not a Rotisserie player, it was the most boring two hours of your life," Tobias said. "But if you play, you shouldn't have missed it before your draft."

Tobias said ESPN plans to televise another pre-draft Rotisserie program in 1995.

Tobias said some market research indicates 4 million people will play Rotisserie baseball this year. USA Today last year estimated that 2 million people played.

Most Rotisserie players are male, although women are involved. Several all-women Rotisserie leagues have sprung up across the country, said Lew Fidler, executive director of the Rotisserie League Baseball Association in New York.

"We can't tell by surnames what the minority makeup is, but we can tell Rotisserie's popular with Hispanic fans," Fidler said. "We have two leagues in Puerto Rico and several in Miami."

Most Rotisserie players say they take their hobbies to work. In fact, many leagues are formed by people who met each other professionally and share a love of baseball out of the office.

John George, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer, spends four hours a week researching his fantasy team. He made six player trades with other players last season, and tells his league "commissioner" to move players into and out of his lineup each week.

George is the only Floridian in his league. Other players live in Texas, New Jersey and New York. Their transactions are done by telephone and fax, sending personal and office phone bills skyward.

"I spent 4 1/2 hours on a telephone at the Los Angeles airport this year doing my draft," said George. "And I missed my flight. That's how serious we take it."

Ron Poitras, a special education teacher and girls track coach at John I. Leonard High School in Lake Worth, said he has spent more money on baseball since joining a Rotisserie league in 1989.

Poitras subscribes to Baseball Weekly now and goes to more spring training and Florida Marlins games than he would if he did not have a Rotisserie team.

"Baseball, just watching it on television, got a little boring to me in 1989," Poitras said. "Until I got into Rotisserie, I had no desire to get Baseball Weekly. Now I get it. I read the minor league reports. I wouldn't have done that five years ago."